When Truth Becomes 'Right-Wing' | Melanie Phillips — Transcript

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1. 0:00Truth has become a right-wing concept.
2. 0:04You cannot say it because if you say it,
3. 0:07you are considered right-wing. And to be
4. 0:10right-wing is to be in league with the
5. 0:13forces of evil.
6. 0:15It is man a manachian division between
7. 0:21ideologies
8. 0:22of one kind or another
9. 0:25and those who don't subscribe to those
10. 0:28ideologies. And the ideologies brookke
11. 0:30no disscent
12. 0:32because they represent in the minds of
13. 0:35people who promote them. They represent
14. 0:40goodness, brotherhood of man, progress,
15. 0:43reason,
16. 0:45education,
17. 0:47and anyone who opposes them is against
18. 0:50all good things. So they are not just
19. 0:52wrong. They're not people to be argued
20. 0:55with. their people to be removed and
21. 0:59silenced because otherwise
22. 1:02um you're against all good things. So
23. 1:05it's it's that division between
24. 1:08good and evil. And unfortunately, you
25. 1:12know, if you stand up against an
26. 1:14ideology like, I don't know, um,
27. 1:17so-called anti-racism,
28. 1:20uh, which basically says all white
29. 1:21people are bad,
30. 1:23critical theory,
31. 1:24or critical theory. Or you stand up and
32. 1:26say a woman is defined by her biology.
33. 1:29So you're against transgender. So as you
34. 1:32know it's there's no discussion. You are
35. 1:35cancelled. You are removed. You have to
36. 1:38be silenced.
37. 1:40This dissent cannot be permitted. So
38. 1:44we're in what uh a thinker of a previous
39. 1:47age uh called cultural totalitarianism.
40. 1:52No alternative is to be permitted. Now,
41. 1:56first of all, that is an assault on
42. 1:58individual freedom, freedom of
43. 2:00expression and freedom. But it's also a
44. 2:04complete repudiation of reason. Because
45. 2:06if you say there is nothing that you can
46. 2:10say that can disscent from my ideology
47. 2:13and you say you're bringing evidence to
48. 2:16oppose me, well, that cannot be the
49. 2:18case. If you're denying evidence and
50. 2:21reality and thinking and engagement with
51. 2:26an idea, then you're denying reason
52. 2:29itself. And so the irony is that in an
53. 2:32age of supposed reason, we're so
54. 2:34rational that we've dispensed with
55. 2:36religion. Only idiots have any kind of
56. 2:39religious sense because it's not based
57. 2:42on reason. That's the thinking. So,
58. 2:44we're so rational, we've got rid of
59. 2:46religion, and yet we are repudiating
60. 2:50rationality completely.
61. 2:53This is something that doesn't quite add
62. 2:56up. So, I would say that we are in a new
63. 3:00age of unreason.
64. 3:02That's what we're in, an age of
65. 3:04unreason. That's what we've unleashed.
66. 3:06And it's an irony because we've done it
67. 3:08under the ages of being rational.
68. 3:11Um but in getting rid of religion we
69. 3:14have unleashed an age of unreason and
70. 3:16what follows from that is the er the
71. 3:19erosion of freedom. Freedom to think,
72. 3:21freedom to speak, freedom to act. Um and
73. 3:25a complete confusion about
74. 3:28uh
75. 3:30uh where the limit should be drawn
76. 3:33between what I want and what others
77. 3:36need. my duty to others and my wish to
78. 3:42realize my own potential. In other
79. 3:45words, you know, it's I versus we and
80. 3:49all those things. And uh the confusion
81. 3:52is epic. Um and but that's where we are.
82. 3:55But again, we have no cultural leaders,
83. 3:58religious, political, whatever, standing
84. 4:00up saying this. Um, and I'm sure I mean
85. 4:04I may be naive, but I'm pretty sure that
86. 4:08what I'm saying may not be thought about
87. 4:11in these terms by many people, but I'm
88. 4:14pretty sure that if enough leaders got
89. 4:17up and if leaders got up and said this,
90. 4:19it would start striking chords because
91. 4:22people, you know, people need to live in
92. 4:27a society which is civilized, which
93. 4:29looks after the welfare of others rather
94. 4:31than yourself. We all know this. We all
95. 4:33know this, but we've kind of allowed
96. 4:35ourselves collectively to to ignore it
97. 4:38and push it to one side. It requires
98. 4:41leadership. We don't have it. That's the
99. 4:42problem.